Warnock launches Eagles into promotion mix as Stoke choke

Monday 7 April 2008 20.09 EDT
First published on Monday 7 April 2008 20.09 EDT

In a league where inconsistency appears almost a virtue, Crystal Palace are determined to fly in the face of popular opinion. Goals by Tom Soares and Jose Fonte were enough to secure victory over a sluggish Stoke City last night and thrust the Londoners, who have lost only once in their past 10 games, firmly into play-off contention. A late volley from Glenn Whelan failed to inspire the home side to salvage the point that would have taken them top.

As others falter with the promotion winning post coming into sight, Palace's elevation to sixth position is a remarkable achievement given their precarious state when these teams last met, in October at Selhurst Park. It was Neil Warnock's first home game in charge of a club second from bottom but the transformation since has seen the garrulous Palace manager striving to reach the eighth play-offs of his career.

Warnock has succeeded in six of those and on current form he stands a good chance of securing a seventh success, armed as he is with the best defensive away record in the division.

"This is the best result since I came to the club," said Warnock, who dismissed comparisons with Iain Dowie's surging run that swept Palace from the Championship basement to the Premier League four years ago. "We don't have the Andy Johnsons in our squad. But it's great to be here and there are a lot of big teams below us. A lot of young lads have come in and got us where we are. It's interesting now because teams will not want to play us."

The absence of the influential Liam Lawrence, who suffered a groin injury over the weekend, reduced Stoke's creative options, scarce at the best of times in a side renowned as robust and direct. Of course, no team Warnock sends out could ever be described as shrinking violets and as Stoke persisted in pounding an aerial route his back four were happy to trade blows with the imposing front pairing of Mamady Sidibe and Shola Ameobi.

Even when Ricardo Fuller replaced the game but cumbersome Sidibe 10 minutes into the second half, the tactical ploy remained relentlessly predictable.

By then Palace were two goals to the good, and deservedly so. In Victor Moses and Scott Sinclair, offering width and pace on either flank, Palace posed great attacking menace and it was realised to good effect in the 23rd minute. Stoke failed to clear their lines and Sinclair

dazzled with a nifty run beyond Danny Pugh and precise centre that presented Soares with a simple header. Fonte, a defender on loan from Benfica, doubled the advantage in first-half stoppage-time when he flashed a right-foot volley into the top corner from 20 yards out, his first goal for the club.

"The second goal killed us," said the Stoke manager, Tony Pulis. "But the pleasing thing is that we created a lot of chances, enough to win a football match. The league has been this way all season, teams losing when they should have won and winning when they should lose, and it will be like to that end. Whoever is consistent will get up. But it augurs well for our last four games that we never gave up."